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Lesson Plans & Activities

Peer-reviewed, classroom-ready NGSS-aligned lesson plans, activities, data puzzles, virtual field trips, and design challenges covering environmental hazards, climate change, mental health, Earth systems, community resilience, and more.  

Lesson Plans & Activities

Hurricane Tracks shows global tropical cyclones from 1950 - 2020. The majority of this activity is in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Eastern pacific, Southwest Asia, and in the Indian Ocean.
Hurricane Tracks

This Data Lens is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of Data Lens lessons.

 In this short activity, students will strengthen their critical thinking skills by carefully observing the data, forming ideas, and backing them up with evidence.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
NOAA Science On a Sphere Data Lens logo overlaid on a world map showing Earth's vegetation and land use. The text reads “Exploring Earth’s Visual Stories
The National Risk Index Map demonstrates natural hazard risk data across the United States by county. Most of central US is in blue and demonstrates lowered hazard risk. Most coastal regions and counties with major cities are red and more at risk.
National Risk Index - County-level Hazards

This Data Lens is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of Data Lens lessons.

 In this short activity, students will strengthen their critical thinking skills by carefully observing the data, forming ideas, and backing them up with evidence.
Lesson
High School
NOAA Science On a Sphere Data Lens logo overlaid on a world map showing Earth's vegetation and land use. The text reads “Exploring Earth’s Visual Stories
2024 Arctic sea ice summer minimum. The image depicts a satellite view of the Arctic where the sea ice is at a minimum during the summer as compared to the median extent that has been averaged from 1981 to 2010.
Arctic Sea Ice and Glaciers - Effects of Albedo

This Data Lens is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of Data Lens lessons.

 In this short activity, students will strengthen their critical thinking skills by carefully observing the data, forming ideas, and backing them up with evidence.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
NOAA Science On a Sphere Data Lens logo overlaid on a world map showing Earth's vegetation and land use. The text reads “Exploring Earth’s Visual Stories
Satellite analysis of global historical precipitation data colored to represent the departure from normal based on the precipitation totals higher than the 1981-2010 average. The graph shows that North America, most of South America, Southern Africa, and Europe are receiving less precipitation than usual. It also shows more precipitation than normal in Latin America and parts of Africa. All of Southeast Asia and Australia are receiving significantly more moisture than usual.
Precipitation Departure - LA Fires

This Data Lens is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of Data Lens lessons.

 In this short activity, students will strengthen their critical thinking skills by carefully observing the data, forming ideas, and backing them up with evidence.
Lesson
High School
NOAA Science On a Sphere Data Lens logo overlaid on a world map showing Earth's vegetation and land use. The text reads “Exploring Earth’s Visual Stories
A man with a white beard and black zip-up sweatshirt who is a wildfire survivor speaks about his experience
Voices of Resilience: Collecting Stories of Survivors

This lesson is best used as part of the HEART Force curricular unit, but it can also be used as part of a unit on natural hazards. 

 Students collect stories from community members about their experiences with hazards.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
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Lines of plants turning yellowish-green above dry and cracked brown dirt
Adapting to Extremes: Exploring the Science of Drought in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to drought in Colorado.

 Humans have been affected by severe drought throughout history; in this lesson students explore this concept by analyzing environmental data to classify patterns and practice communicating their findings.
Lesson
High School
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This is an image of 9 students who are sharing their environmental projects.
Facilitating Discussions and Creating Solidarity

This activity is one of seven activities in the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.

 Talking about emotions related to climate change can help youth to process emotions, move on, and develop trust and connection with others through shared solidarity. In this lesson, students will discuss their thoughts and feelings about climate change with others. Consider teaching the Emotions Wheel and Active Listening activities before this in order to help students develop language and discussion skills.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
University/College
CLEAN logo, Logo with the words "CLIMATE MENTAL HEALTH" in an arch. "CLIMATE" is in blue, "MENTAL" in red, and "HEALTH" in green. In the center, a person sits on top of a globe holding a green sign with a red heart. On the left, another person holds a protest sign that reads "There is no planet B." On the right, a person sits cross-legged reading a book. Another small figure holds a megaphone
This is a picture that lists the 6 key active listening skills: pay attention, withhold judgment, reflect, clarify, summarize and share.
Active Listening Skills

This activity is one of seven activities in the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.

 In this lesson, students will identify emotions they experience as they learn about the impacts of climate change. In pairs, students will practice active listening skills as one student describes their emotions to the partner who applies active listening skills. They then flip roles and the other student describes their emotions while the partner listens.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
University/College
CLEAN logo, Logo with the words "CLIMATE MENTAL HEALTH" in an arch. "CLIMATE" is in blue, "MENTAL" in red, and "HEALTH" in green. In the center, a person sits on top of a globe holding a green sign with a red heart. On the left, another person holds a protest sign that reads "There is no planet B." On the right, a person sits cross-legged reading a book. Another small figure holds a megaphone
Flood waters from Hurrican Dolly overtake a suburb
Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards

This is the third of four lessons in the Lake County Cascading Hazards unit. This lesson can also be used in the HEART Force Curriculum. 

 In the third lesson of the Lake County Cascading Hazards unit, students learn about social factors that might make one group more vulnerable to a hazard than another.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
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Five steps to prepare for wildfire
Take Action

Actions that will help families prepare for the next disaster can take a few minutes, and make a big difference when the time comes. Students will create a social media post or a short video to share what they are doing to prepare and encourage their friends to be prepared too.

 In the last lesson of the Lake County unit, students develop ideas to increase resilience to hazards in their community.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
Cascading hazards
Cascading Hazards

This is the second of four lessons in the Lake County Cascading Hazards unit. 

 In the second lesson of the Lake County Cascading Hazards unit, students dig into local stories and datasets, and learn about the connections between natural hazards.
Lesson
STEAM Activity
Middle School
High School
A home being rebuilt after the Valley Fire as part of the Hope City project in Lake County. Photo Credit: Lake County News
ReVisioning Hazards

This is the first lesson in the Lake County Cascading Hazards unit, but can be used for any introduction to natural hazards curriculum. 

 In the first lesson of the Lake County Cascading Hazards Unit, students read a poem written by a local fire survivor, and utilize a visualization practice to build personal resilience.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
Landscape shot of Greenland ice sheets in the background and rocks in the foreground. Two polar explorers stand on top of the rocks gazing out into the polar sheets.
Querying with QGreenland

These short, one-page tutorials are appropriate for beginner QGIS users. Users should have downloaded and opened both QGIS and the QGreenland project.

 These quick, one-page tutorials teach you how to analyze QGreenland datasets with beginner-level geoprocessing tools.
Lesson
Geospatial resource
High School
University/College
Out-of-school/Non-formal
QGreenland logo
Hazard Mitigation Planning Meeting. A group of nine adults gather around a wooden table littered with papers while discussing mitigation strategies. In the background is yellow walls with wooden shelves and drawers with plants and books on them
Communicate Existing Plans

This is a guide that can be used for a pathway for the Community Resilience Expo. 

 In this sub-unit, students will learn more about their community’s resilience plans, choose a specific topic to focus on, and develop a product to communicate the plan to their peers and/or their community.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
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Gray smoke rises from the Black Forest with blue sky in the background
Adapting to Extremes: Exploring the Science of Wildfire in Colorado

This lesson is best used as part of the HEART Force curricular unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to wildfire in Colorado.

 Students build an understanding of wildfire in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format.
Lesson
High School
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Big Thompson Flood image https://cires.colorado.edu/outreach/sites/default/files/2019-08/1024px-NOAA_logo.svg_.png. Brown flood water races through the street with green trees and houses with green roofs on either side
Adapting to Extremes: Exploring the Science of Floods in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to floods in Colorado.

 The way we choose to design our communities has impacted community risk and vulnerability to flooding; in this lesson, students will explore this concept by analyzing environmental data to classify patterns and practice communicating their findings. 
Lesson
High School
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Colorado Mountains covered in snow in the background with orange and yellow trees in the foreground on rolling hills
The Vocabulary of Hazards

We suggest teaching this lesson to introduce the unit as it will benefit students in their understanding of natural hazards throughout the entire HEART Force Unit.

 This lesson uses a matching game to build students' understanding and familiarity with different terms used in the world of resiliency planning.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
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Impacts of drought on the Colorado River in the Southwest U.S., Photo Credit: USGS. A river lays low in the valley of red and orange rocks
A Changing Climate: Understanding Drought in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to drought in Colorado.

 Students build an understanding of drought in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw activity. 
Lesson
Middle School
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A colorful children’s drawing titled “Welcome to Healthy Village” shows houses promoting eco-friendly themes: Solar Energy, Recycle & Reuse, Clean Water, Organic Farming, Cotton Farm, Organic Kitchen, Wind Energy, and Electric Gym. A river runs through the village with trees, mountains, and birds in the background, and people engaging in related activities. The caption reads, “America’s future starts with healthy children because they are the path to a better world
Envisioning a Resilient Future

We suggest teaching this lesson to introduce the HEART Force Unit.

 In this lesson, students create a vision for the future of their community and identify what resources are most important to them as a starting point for resilience planning.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
heartforce placeholder, Logo with the words "CLIMATE MENTAL HEALTH" in an arch. "CLIMATE" is in blue, "MENTAL" in red, and "HEALTH" in green. In the center, a person sits on top of a globe holding a green sign with a red heart. On the left, another person holds a protest sign that reads "There is no planet B." On the right, a person sits cross-legged reading a book. Another small figure holds a megaphone
Big Thompson Flood. Brown muddy flood water flows through street with en trees greand houses with blue and green roofs to the side
A Changing Climate: Understanding Floods in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to floods in Colorado.

 Students build an understanding of flooding in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format. 
Lesson
Middle School
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A scenic mountain landscape with patches of melting snow on a rocky slope in the foreground. Below, a small turquoise alpine lake is surrounded by dense evergreen forest. In the distance, tall rugged peaks rise above the tree line under a partly cloudy sky
A Changing Climate: Understanding Wildfire in Colorado

This lesson is best used as part of the HEART Force curricular unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to wildfire in Colorado.

 Students build an understanding of wildfire in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format. 
Lesson
Middle School
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A diverse collection of trees, shrubs, and brush of varying green and yellow shades are around a blue pond with a wooden bridge in the left background. In the distance are the tops of mountains and a blue cloudless sky.
Flood Resilience in Colorado StoryMap

This is a lesson that can be used to get ideas and prepare for the Community Resilience Expo. 

 Students interact with a flood StoryMap to explore the Colorado Resiliency Framework.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
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A green pine forest on the side of a mountain in the background of a small log cabin with a blue roof on a green grassy hill
Wildfire Resilience in Colorado StoryMap

This is a lesson that can be used to get ideas and prepare for the Community Resilience Expo. 

 Students interact with a wildfire StoryMap to explore the Colorado Resiliency Framework.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
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Hazard mitigation planning on blue map with white lines
Exploring Local Hazard Mitigation Plans

This lesson is part of the Community Resilience Expo, a culminating event for the HEART Force curriculum unit, where students will share what they’ve learned during the hazard lesson and the role-playing game.

 In this lesson, students will explore their county Hazard Mitigation Plan to gain understanding about the hazard in their area (flooding, wildfire, or drought), including historic hazards, probability of future occurrences of the hazard, and vulnerability of the area to the hazard.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
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Four students gather at a table with books, strategizing and thinking. In the background is windows to a bright sun and green blurred trees
Design a Resilient Future

This is a lesson that can be used to get ideas and prepare for the Community Resilience Expo. 

 In this lesson, students will work in small groups to develop an idea to increase community resilience, utilizing Design Thinking. 
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
heartforce placeholder, Logo with the words "CLIMATE MENTAL HEALTH" in an arch. "CLIMATE" is in blue, "MENTAL" in red, and "HEALTH" in green. In the center, a person sits on top of a globe holding a green sign with a red heart. On the left, another person holds a protest sign that reads "There is no planet B." On the right, a person sits cross-legged reading a book. Another small figure holds a megaphone
A student stands while doing a presentation.
How Can We Present Solutions for Food Waste and Emissions at School?

This is the fifth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 This lesson provides guidance for students to create and practice a presentation about their design challenge results that they developed in the previous lessons and how to present it to the school administration.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A large truck dumps trash into a landfill with a blue sky in the background.
How Can We Decrease Our Impact on the Earth’s Climate at our School?

This is the first lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which was designed to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 In this design challenge lesson students explore the Denver Public School District’s solid waste plan and discuss how their school can save or decrease emissions by reducing solid waste at our school.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A trash can overflowing with food such as lettuce, tomato, bread, banana, and a milk jug with a blue lid.
How Does Our School Food System Create Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

This is the second lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 In this design challenge lesson, students examine their school food system and develop an investigation about food waste in order to know what should change.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A grocer checks milk on a shelf at a grocery store, the milk jugs have different colored caps of light blue, dark blue and red.
How Can We Understand Waste and Emissions in Our School's Food System?

This is the third lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 This lesson outlines for students how to design and carry out an investigation to audit their school’s food waste system.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A group of students using laptops at desks all pushed together to form one collaborative workspace.
How Can We Reduce Emissions Associated with Food Waste in Our School?

This is the fourth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 In this activity students utilize the data that is collected and propose solutions to mitigate food waste in their school.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
The carcasses of dead fish lie in a dry lake bed.
What Impact do Increasing Greenhouse Gases Have?

This is the sixth and final lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education High School Climate Unit.

 In this lesson, students utilize case studies to learn about the ways climate change is currently impacting people and other living things around the world.
Lesson
High School
A satellite image is shown over the same image in infrared, showing that the paved sidewalks and roads retain more heat than homes and vegetation.
Why Are Growing Cities Hotter?

This is the third lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 This lesson has students explore what land use changes are happening and how changes in surface color affects temperatures in cities.
Lesson
Middle School
Sun flare refracting through leaves.
What Makes Cities Hotter?

This is the second lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 In this lesson, students explore reasons why temperatures in particular Colorado cities are rising.
Lesson
Middle School
A surface temperature anomaly or trend map by NASA.
Are Other Parts of the World Getting Hotter?

This is the fourth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 In this lesson, students investigate whether other parts of the world are changing and getting hotter just like Colorado.
Lesson
Middle School
A long line of cars in heavy traffic.
How Do Cars Impact CO2 in the Atmosphere?

This is the seventh lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 During this lesson, students explore how fossil fuel burning in cars contributes CO2 to the atmosphere.
Lesson
Middle School
No dumping, Drains to Creek sign on concrete written in green with a green fish
Waste, Water, and Wastewater

Project EXTREMES lessons were written to be stand alone lessons but can be incorporated into a larger unit.

 In this lesson, students will apply what they know about how to separate a mixture by designing a wastewater treatment facility that effectively removes contaminants.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Middle School
Extremes
Illustration of two people high-fiving in a work environment

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